As many others do, your business may have to contend with accusations of ethical violations over the years. To clearly define a violation in the eyes of the state, however, lawmakers take practice and considerable patience. If you find yourself in need of an investigatory defense, you can call on a New Jersey workplace ethics investigation lawyer.
Experienced restaurant and hospitality attorneys can help you communicate with employees or third parties who question how you run your business. Together you can respond to court summons and meet with the appropriate parties both in and out of court to address the presented concerns.
The question of ethics in relation to the law is one that attorneys have been debating for years. What one party considers to be ethical behavior may violate another’s sense of fair play. However, when employees start to bring ethical concerns to the table, it is the job of officiating bodies to take those concerns seriously. Some of the most common causes to result in a workplace ethics investigation include:
Luckily, a dedicated lawyer in New Jersey can make the workplace ethics investigation process a little easier. When employees have ethical complaints to bring to their supervisors’ attention, they must submit those complaints to the Office of the Attorney of Ethics (OAE). If this office summons a business representative forward, a legal representative can help the summoned party better understand their circumstances and address them accordingly.
The process that third parties use to investigate businesses in the hospitality industry involves the following steps:
Employees or other interested parties must first assess the state of their company and file an appropriate complaint with the OAE. The OAE will then consider this complaint and, in some circumstances, choose to carry forward with an investigation.
During the investigation phase, representatives from the OAE or another third-party operation have the right to interview a business’s employees about day-to-day operations. These interviews must take place without employer interference.
The parties mentioned above may also tour the institutions in question and gather evidence—if applicable—of the alleged misconduct.
These same parties have the right to request documentation from the business in question. This can include employer emails, chat logs, phone records, finances, and much more. With this information and other pieces on hand, a third party can determine whether or not the complaint regarding the business’s operations is valid or not.
Not every workplace ethical investigation results in a call to court. In some cases, a third-party investigation may conclude that the initial complaint filed against the company was misleading or untrue. In these cases, businesses can walk away from ethical investigations and continue business as usual.
If a third party believes that a business has engaged in some manner of ethical violation, however, that business may be brought before a court. With the help of a skilled attorney in New Jersey, a business can contest the evidence discovered in favor of the initial workplace ethics investigation and either avoid or negotiate down any damages owed to other parties.
Legal questions surrounding ethics are tricky to pin down. Ethics in the workplace are open to interpretation, with several legal cases establishing different precedents for various unique circumstances.
If your employees have brought forward concerns regarding the ethical conduct of your business, know that you are not alone. Schedule a consultation with a New Jersey workplace ethics investigation lawyer to simplify the process. Our team can mediate with employees on your behalf while also managing any paperwork the OAE may send your way.